San Jose

ODC 2008 begins tomorrow, so today I had several hours to walk around. Weather was just great, 60++ F, sunny, very nice. I got my shorts, sandals and camera, and started to enjoy life.
Streets almost empty. Beautiful St. Joseph cathedral - white on bright blue sky background. Cathedral gift shop - many religious souvenirs, religious and classical music. Very interesting, unusual, modern-design cross (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pntphoto/2253465607/). Very polite man agreed that cross is quite unusual and explained that cross is from El Salvador (“…there are many interesting things from El Salvador… ”). I asked how far is downtown (crowd, troops of tourists, traffic, etc., etc., etc.). Man in the store looked at me silently for approximately 12 seconds. Answer: “You ARE in downtown. Right in the middle….” Yes…… OK…... February, definitely off-season.
Streets of San Jose look nice, but there are not so many really distinctive buildings (my very subjective possibly wrong opinion just after several hours in the city). Really great City Hall, Beautiful example of modern architecture.
Went to the Art Museum. Exhibition of Goya and Picasso graphics – absolutely great. Three chandeliers by Dale Chihuly in the museum lobby, very similar to chandelier which I’ve seen in Columbus, IN visitors center (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pntphoto/2137283494/in/set-72157603417353853/).
Little vegan café. Two vegetarians with tattoo all around the visible parts of their bodies (arms, elbows, shoulders, necks, etc.) sit in the corner. I got green tea and two healthy vegan deserts. Very tasty.
From all possible directions ladies and gentlemen are heading to hotel. Crowd of limos, tuxedoes and very nice evening dresses. Soft piano music in the lobby: Fransis Lai, Michael Legrand, “Stranger of the Night”….. Smell of Chanel #5 and/or something else very nice, all around the hotel lobby. My shorts, sandals, backpack and camera look not exactly……. I ‘m moving to my room and now I’m blogging about my first ½ of day in San Jose, California.

What else?..... More than 100 photos have been taken. Hope to upload them to Flickr soon.